OAKLAND -- Nearly 1 in 6 kindergartners are chronically absent in the Oakland Unified School District. But not for much longer.

At least that's what OUSD officials hope, with the release of a new video aimed at decreasing chronic absenteeism and discouraging lateness. Chronic absence is missing 10 percent of school days, regardless of the reasons.

The video, shot in June and launched on YouTube Wednesday, includes about 30 OUSD students and Oakland Tech High School alum Marshawn Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks running back and former Cal Bears star.

The two-minute video, called "I'm an Oakland School Kid," shows students in a class writing about what they want to be when they grow up. Quickly, it switches to students dancing and singing to a remix version of "Don't Stop the Music." The kids sing about the importance of class attendance.

"Once you fall behind it becomes progressively harder to catch up if you're missing days," said Troy Flint, OUSD spokesman. "It's critical to place a focus on early learning. The video is really designed to appeal to everyone, but most of all, younger kids."

The video, developed by OUSD, is just one aspect of the larger effort throughout Oakland to improve attendance in schools. The district worked with Portal A, an ad agency, to shoot the video, before school let out.

Members of Portal A spent the summer editing the video to launch it by early August. Members of the production team are also Bay Area natives and said they have a personal connection with Oakland.

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"We want to show people that the Oakland Unified School District, the kids and the parents who are involved in that community are really passionate about schools," said Nina Reyes Rosenberg, director of the video. "We just want to show the world that this community is really serious about preparing our kids for the future."

Moving forward, the district hopes to emphasize its commitment to improving attendance through the video, Flint said. He also added that he hopes other schools will promote the video as well.

"In the ideal scenario, the video gets widespread attention and it creates a new face and association with the Oakland school district," Flint said, "and helps produce a tangible improvement in our attendance rates."